Sister Mary Shryock, CSJ

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — A Mass of the Resurrection will be offered at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 16, at Nazareth Living Center, 2 Nazareth Lane in St. Louis, for Sister Mary Shryock, CSJ, a Peoria native and former teacher who was involved in music ministry and education in Peoria for nearly 25 years.

Sister Mary died on Nov. 4, 2023, at Nazareth Living Center. She was 95.

Visitation is scheduled one hour prior to the funeral Mass. Burial will take place in Resurrection Cemetery, also in St. Louis.

The Mass will be livestreamed here.

Born in Peoria on Jan. 30, 1928, to Arthur Dewey and Della (Reiferscheid) Shryock, she entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1946 and was received into the novitiate as Sister Anthony Bernard the following year. She professed final vows on Aug. 15, 1952, and was in her 76th year of religious life.

Sister Mary earned a bachelor’s degree in music/organ from Fontbonne College in 1958 and a master’s degree in music/organ from DePaul University in Chicago in 1962.

Starting in 1949, Sister Mary devoted her ministry to music education, teaching at St. Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret of Scotland grade schools in St. Louis; St. James in Denver; St. Mary’s in Bridgeton, Missouri; Our Lady of the Presentation and St. Phillip Neri, both in St. Louis; and St. Viator in Chicago.

After earning her master’s degree, she taught for one year at St. Joseph Academy in St. Louis before winning a Fullbright Scholarship and the opportunity to study organ in France under Marcel Dupre’.

Upon her return, Sister Mary taught for one year at St. Teresa’s Academy in Kansas City and then began a teaching assignment at Fontbonne College in St. Louis that would last 25 years.

In 1989, she returned to Peoria to care for her parents, teaching music lessons on the side. Following her parents’ deaths in 1996, she continued with private lessons but was also an organist at St. Jude, St. Bernard, and Holy Family parishes and schools in Peoria while residing with her religious community. She moved to Nazareth Living Center in St. Louis in 2012 and continued a ministry of prayer and presence.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Louis Province, 6400 Minnesota Ave., St. Louis, MO 63111-2899 or online at csjsl.org/waystogive.